Background to The Fair Labor Standards Act of 2016
Since the implementation of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, Americans have believed that our democratic way of life requires a fair wage for a hard day’s work. That ideal was realized in the 1938 Act which provided for a minimum wage plus time-and-a-half for workers who worked more than 40 hours a week. These overtime pay rules apply to most hourly workers and to some salaried employees. In the early days, most salaried workers were covered by the law, but as the years went by with few updates to the overtime salary cap, more and more white-collar workers were left out in the cold. They were classified as “exempt” from receiving overtime pay, and they often work many hours of overtime with no extra compensation.
Read more: The Uncertain Future of Overtime Pay for White Collar Workers